The Charge

The birth of a genius.

Opening Statement

Truly, Fritz Lang (Metropolis) is in the pantheon
of all-time great directors and, arguably, he was the very best filmmaker of
early cinema. Now, from Kino International, his fans have the opportunity to
view three of his very first films with Fritz Lang: The Early Years and,
while they may not reach the heights of his work that would soon follow, it is a
fascinating look at the rise of a master.

Facts of the Case

Harakiri: This retelling of Puccini's great opera, Madame
Butterfly, presents the story of O-Take-San (Lil Dagover, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari), a
beautiful young Japanese woman who is committed to being a Buddhist priestess
until she meets a handsome European soldier named Olaf (Niels Prien). She falls
in love with him instantly and they marry, but within a few months, Olaf must
return to Europe. Four years later, Olaf returns with his new wife in tow, only
to find that he now has a son from O-Take-San, who has remained faithful to him
for all these years.

The Wandering Shadow: Irmgard Vanderheit (Mia May, Love
Tragedy) is exiled from her town in the wake of a sex scandal and finds
solace in the solitude of the Bavarian Alps. There, she confronts her past and
the men who drove her away, only to find a chance at redemption when one of
those men is in danger.

Four Around the Woman: On her wedding night, Florence Yquen (Carola
Toelle, Kean) is found tied up in her bed. It appears to be a simple
robbery, but soon, she starts receiving blackmail notes threatening to tell her
husband the real story of that night. Now, she must navigate a web of crime and
conspiracy while trying to clear her name.

The Evidence

While there is no doubt that the three films presented in Fritz Lang: The
Early Works don't match the greatness of his work to come, silent film fans
are in for a real treat with this collection.

Harakiri, only Lang's fourth film, shows how adeptly he could adapt a
work for silent cinema. Without the operatic trappings and in spite of fairly
significant changes to the story, he gets the heart of the plot exactly right,
giving all the sympathy and humanity to O-Take-San and making Olaf a genuine
heel. This is in sharp contrast to how it might have been resolved in an
American production where, even at this early stage, the finale would have
likely been changed to reflect romance and happiness. Not here, though; it comes
out exactly the way it should, in total sadness and tragedy. The performances
are very solid and Niels Prien is hilarious as Olaf. His reaction when he gets
word of his wife's predicament is absolutely priceless, with a shrug and a
"Meh" attitude that hammers home his churlishness. It's not a great
film, but there's a lot to enjoy in it.

The Wandering Shadow suffers the most from its age. Half an hour is
missing from the print and, as explained prior to the start of the film, it was
discovered in a Brazilian archive in the state that it is. This is a very
interesting picture, with a strange plot that probably would make a lot more
sense if the remainder of the film was intact, and some absolutely gorgeous
views of the Alps. Of note, this is the first of many collaborations with wife
and cowriter Thea von Harbou, who worked with him on nearly all of his best
productions before he left for the US (and she joined the Nazi party). There is
much that is excellent about the film, but it is a little bit too disjointed and
fractured to recommend to anyone but the most avid silent film fans.

Finally, we have Four Around the Woman, another interesting but odd
entry that would mark his final film before Destiny, his first
masterwork. In tone and spirit, it anticipates Dr. Mabuse: The Gambler,
one of the most entertaining of all the silents, with its focus on the criminal
underbelly and the diabolical machinations of those criminals. It's mostly
effective, with very strong performances and more visual style than in the
previous films, but it is a little scattered and ends very abruptly.

Together, Fritz Lang: The Early Years is an excellent collection for
fans of early film in general and Fritz Lang fans specifically. You aren't going
to find the masterpieces that Lang would deliver a few years later, but they
collectively give a great sense of what the director was capable of and what he
would soon deliver.

The three films come on three separate discs from Kino. Given they're all
bare-bones presentations, it's a waste of plastic, but otherwise the collection
is just fine. All three films look better than anticipated, though they all
suffer the kind of damage I've come to expect from silent film releases. There
is some print degradation here and there, along with a plethora of scratches and
pops, but the transfers are all very good. The biggest problem with all of them
is the missing footage, which is most pronounced in The Wandering Shadow,
which has nearly a third missing. The other two are less dramatic, but there are
frames missing throughout and Four around the Woman, according to an
apology before the film, is missing around ten minutes, which might help to
explain why it's so confusing at times. The sound on each of the films fares
basically the same, with no noise to speak of, though that's not surprising
given that they all feature new scores by Aljoscha Zimmerman. I really liked the
scores for the first two (odd, given my track record of hating modern silent
scores), but hated the score for Four around the Woman. Plainly, it's
repetitive and far too peppy for what is a fairly dour film. There are no extras
on any of the three discs.

Closing Statement

So what if the three films on Fritz Lang: The Early Works aren't
masterpieces? They're still good films with shades of the greatness to come.
It's too bad that the three discs are bare bones, but silent fans will still
delight in seeing one of history's great directors at the start of his
career.